musk thistles

Noun

musk thistle (plural musk thistles)

1. A biennial herb of species Carduus nutans, in the sunflower family Asteraceae with a large drooping purple flower head, native to parts of Eurasia and North Africa and a common invasive species elsewhere.
   • The Muske-Thistle I haue seene growing about Deptford, and (as far as my memory serues me) it is very like to the third here described: it growes better than a cubit high, with reasonable large leaues, and also heads which are a little soft or downy, large, with purple floures: the heads before the...1633, John Gerard, Thomas Johnson, The herball, or, Generall historie of plantes, volume 2, page 1176

   Synonyms:

   nodding thistle